One 'Magic Room' That Links Generations of Brides

By

Jeffrey Zaslow

January 11, 2012

Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow's latest book, "The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters," is set at a bridal store in Fowler, Mich., (pop. 1,100) that has outfitted generations of brides since 1934.

A half-century ago, long before the word "bridezilla" was part of our lexicon, saleswomen at Becker's Bridal had a secret language they used to cope with unpleasant brides.

If they liked a bride, they'd refer to her as "girlie." They'd say, "Girlie, that gown looks beautiful on you!" If a bride was difficult, they'd call her "sweetheart." That was a code between co-workers. "Would you help this sweetheart find a veil?" one saleswoman would say to another.

More couples get engaged over the December holidays than any other time of the year, which makes January the busiest month for bridal-gown shopping, Jeffrey Zaslow reports on Lunch Break. Photo: Getty Images.

Since 1934, more than 100,000 girlies and sweethearts have come to Becker's to find their wedding gowns, and in their journeys there, they formed a kind of sisterhood. All of them are linked not just to the eras in which they got married, but also to each other and to the wedding culture today.

Brides and bridal gowns have always offered a measure of our longings and aspirations. Just 51% of American adults are now married—a record low—according to a report issued last month by the Pew Research Center. Pew also reports that 39% of Americans believe marriage is "becoming obsolete." And yet, in the story of this old bridal shop in a rural, one-stoplight town, it's easy to see why, despite everything, wedding gowns remain a symbol of hope.

For 78 years, Becker's Bridal on Fowler's tired Main Street has been run by an unbroken family chain—a great-grandmother, grandmother, mother and daughter. Thanks to the Beckers, Fowler claims to have more wedding dresses per capita than any U.S. municipality; there are 1,100 residents and 2,500 bridal gowns stocked at the store.

The Culture of the Wedding Gown

The store is housed in a century-old structure that was once a bank, and after brides select the dress they think is "the one," they step inside what used to be the old bank vault. A 10-by-8-foot space with mirrors carrying a bride's image into infinity, it's called "The Magic Room," and with good reason. Brides and their parents routinely melt into tears here.

Fowler is a community where everyone knows each other. A good number of residents work at nearby auto plants. Many of their sons and daughters now serve in the military. Becker's is the largest business in Fowler, and for decades, residents have been accustomed to bands of roaming bridesmaids on Main Street.

Becker's was founded by Eva Becker, described by her family as a short, stocky no-nonsense pioneering businesswoman who for decades oversaw employees and customers with a firm hand. Her first dresses were fastened with a complicated line of hook-and-eye closures. But on out-of-town buying trips in the late 1930s, she began seeing more dresses with zippers, and she embraced the concept.

ENLARGE

In the 1930s and 1940s, it usually took a Becker's bride an hour to find a dress. Eva had little patience for indecision. She'd offer three choices, maybe four, after which she'd say something like, "Well I think the first one looks best. Don't you?" The bride's mother would answer, "Yes, the first one was lovely, wasn't it?" And the sale was set.

Eva died in 1975, and her son and daughter-in-law took over. Brides started showing up with photos torn from bridal magazines. The process of trying on dresses could stretch to three hours.

ENLARGE

Shelley Becker Mueller, granddaughter of Eva and the current proprietor. Shelley's daughter, Alyssa, also works there.
Kelly Lynne Photography

By the 1990s, long shopping excursions with loved ones and bridesmaids had become a tradition. Now the search often stretches for weeks. "They just don't want the fun to be over. It can be wearying," says 46-year-old
Shelley Becker Mueller,
Eva's granddaughter.

Even after Shelley and her daughter Alyssa, 25, have logged hours helping a bride, there's always the risk that she'll turn to the Internet to buy the dress for $50 cheaper.

Shelley's mother,
Sharon Becker,
says when she ran the store in the 1970s, sales were sealed without much angst. "Mothers and daughters didn't argue the way they do today….Back then, a bride was just tickled to get a dress."

ENLARGE

Frank and Eva Becker were married in 1922. Eva founded the bridal store in 1934.
Kelly Lynne Photography

Eleanor Klein
began working at Becker's in 1935, at age 15, and stayed on the job for 72 years. Eva, the founder, was her aunt. In the early days, brides had no jobs and no money. Parents paid for the dresses and made the decisions. By the time Eleanor retired in 2007, brides were often paying for dresses themselves. "These days, the brides tell their parents what they want instead of vice versa," says Ms. Klein, now 90.

When Becker's opened in 1934, dresses were expected to be multifunctional, rather than one-time-only fashion statements. Women would dye or hem them for other important occasions.

After World War II, shoulder pads got bigger—and so did wedding budgets. In the 1950s, Elizabeth Taylor, starring in "Father of the Bride," and Grace Kelly, marrying a prince, helped usher in fairy-tale weddings.

ENLARGE

Part of the store's inventory
Kelly Lynne Photography

Department stores had 85% of the wedding-gown business nationwide in the 1950s, but Becker's stayed afloat through word-of-mouth in small Michigan towns. In the 1960s, thousands of mom-and-pop bridal shops opened up in suburban strip malls. Because Becker's had established itself so long ago, its customers remained loyal. The next big challenge came in the 1990s, when the David's Bridal chain began growing, selling gowns starting at $99. As a result of this and other pressures, the number of U.S. bridal shops fell from a peak of about 8,000 in 1990 to less than 5,000, according to the Bridal Association of America. Becker's held on. Last year, Becker's sold 1,650 dresses. The store has $1.8 million in annual sales, with 85% of that revenue needed to cover merchandise and salaries.

Brides today say they're calmed by the personal touch they receive in the store's softly lighted Magic Room. When Meredith Maitner, a 39-year-old first-time bride, arrived at Becker's in 2010, she'd previously stopped at a bridal chain, and it was not an easy visit for her. "I had to share a pedestal with a girl half my size and half my age," she said.

The dresses at Becker's are mostly modest numbers; current prices range from $680 to $2,600. The average bride in the U.S. now spends $1,289 on a dress, up 20% since 1999, according to the American Wedding Study conducted last year by Brides magazine. Shelley Becker credits the increase to TV bridal shows, which focus on upper-end gowns.

Becker's brides are told that sales are final, given the alterations required. That explains why there's a room—beyond the view of buoyant brides—dubbed "The Dress Cemetery." It's a sad, crowded place where dresses are piled up after engagements are broken. Few brides ever return to claim them. Most of the dresses remain there forever; Shelley feels selling a gown with a sad history would be bad luck for another bride.

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